Photo: Sinitta Leunen | Unsplash
For the first time, no girls have been incarcerated at the Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility, and there are fewer kids overall at the detention center—the result of a long, coordinated effort to "divert" kids into community programs and toward mental health supports. "We’re trying to create a continuity of trauma-informed care throughout our programs to meet each child at the level that they're at in dealing with these issues," said HYCF Administrator Mark Patterson. Most children who end up at HYCF have experienced trauma at home due to poverty, houselessness, abuse, victimization, drug addiction and mental health issues. "This news is a good sign in that we are moving in the right direction," says Shawn Kanaiaupuni of Partners in Development Foundation, which works with at-risk youth. "Research has shown that locking up youth in prison cells produces more re-offenses and a higher likelihood of ending up in adult prisons."
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